WORKS

The impact of climate change is felt and measured most intimately through our experience of water, whether in drought, flooding, or securing safe drinking water. It is no wonder that the climate crisis is dubbed the water crisis. Despite countless news reports on climate disasters in the Global South, where all top ten deadliest natural disasters of 2022 occurred, it is difficult to grasp the impacts of climate change beyond the abstract level, especially when the crisis affects communities outside one’s own.

This exhibition presents artworks that tell alternate stories of water as a cyclical, life-giving, life-dissolving, inert but innately alive, spiritual force—a notion shared widely among indigenous communities in the Global South. By juxtaposing older, traditional paintings that depict mythological stories with works by contemporary artists in the age of climate crisis, Water Stories encourages viewers to appreciate and contemplate water’s multivalent meanings. When viewed through the ecological lens of climate change, myths about a celestial river saving the ancestors of an ancient sage resonate with the reverence and respect required to recalibratehuman’s relationship with the environment.

As an essential element, water may be everywhere, but how we see and understand water is not universal. What color is water, where and how does it appear? How do you understand and share your visceral experience of water? The works in this exhibition show how various forms of water take shape through artists’ visions and material interventions, highlighting art’s role in addressing challenges of the anthropogenic climate crisis.